Arc Raiders has only been out a day, but it has already surpassed a Steam concurrent peak player count of 264,673, making it one of the biggest extraction shooters ever on Valve’s platform.

Given Arc Raiders ended its recent ‘Server Slam’ playtest with big player numbers on Steam, developer Embark Studio was likely braced for a bumper launch day. Which is just as well, as it’s currently one of the biggest games on Steam; just Battlefield 6, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, and viral hit Escape from Duckov clocked up bigger 24-hour peaks.

This means more people played Arc Raiders on Steam in the last 24-hours than even free-to-play titles like Apex Legends and Marvel Rivals.

The true number of players Arc Raiders has will of course be bigger than its Steam count, as it also launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Arc Raiders launched mid-week, so the expectation is for its player number to grow as the game heads into its first weekend. For now, we can say the launch is truly impressive on Steam, where Arc Raiders has a ‘very positive’ user review rating after over 8,800 reviews.

It’ll be interesting to see how Arc Raiders fares when perhaps one of its biggest competitors, Escape From Tarkov, debuts on Steam next month. Another key competitor could be Marathon. Arc Raiders’ design director previously said it was fortuitous timing to have Bungie’s extraction shooter launch a playtest around the same time as its own, calling it “a great A/B test for us.”

Earlier this week, Embark insisted it wasn’t worried about Arc Raiders coming out between Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, insisting: “we believe the game can launch there.”

“I know. The insanity,” CEO Patrick Soderlund told The Game Business. “People may look at that [Arc Raiders’ release date] and say, ‘What the hell are they doing?’ We have spent a lot of time looking at this from multiple angles and you know, for right or wrong, we believe that the game can launch there. This is the start of a long journey. It needs to start somewhere.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.